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Friday, September 27, 2013

Interview with Diana Chua: how many unwanted companion animals are in Australia

Diana with a canine patient.

Diana Chua is a fifth
year veterinary student at the University of Queensland – and teaches in
Singapore during her holidays. She is a final year veterinary student who is passionate
about animal welfare and is already busy making a difference in this field. She
spoke at the Getting2Zero conference earlier this month about the scope of the
problem of unwanted companion animals in Australia.

[And yes, SAT unashamedly
supports efforts to reduce these numbers which is why we are featuring so many
fantastic speakers from the G2Z summit!]

Tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you and what
do you do?

I am currently a fifth year
veterinary science student at the University of Queensland. I used to work as
an education officer with the Ministry of Education in Singapore. Only 4 years
ago, I made the decision to embark on this second degree in Veterinary Science,
and thus left the service. However, I still teach whenever I return to
Singapore during holidays.

You've had an interesting career. Why the
change to veterinary science?

I have always wanted to be a vet.
I think a veterinarian is what most children aspire to be (well, the 7 year old
kids I have spoken to listed it as their ambition ) and I was no exception.
Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to pursue my dream then, though I
was involved in shelter work back in Singapore. I worked on integrating shelter
awareness in education by directing a post exam programme for the children in
my school, so as to create a sense of social responsibility and reinforce their
belief that they can make a difference. Having been in education, I am well aware
of the impact that education has on changing the mindset and values of our
society. People do the things they do because it is all they know, so to change
how they act on things, we have to change how they see things. When the
opportunity to study arose, I leapt for it. I believe I can convey information
better and leverage teachable moments if I am empowered with the knowledge to
do so.

...and with a calf.

You're a final year student, but you've
been involved in extracurricular activities throughout your degree. Can you
tell us a bit about some of those?

I have joined a number of special
interests groups, such as Small Animals Medicine and Surgery and the Wildlife
Association. One particular group that I was actively involved in, as a
secretary and then as a treasurer the second year, was Veterinary Integrative
Medicine. This group is involved in holistic veterinary medicine. This means
looking at animal health as a whole - physical health, mental health (via
enrichment and quality of life ) and rehabilitation therapy ( physiotherapy,
chiropractic therapy, acupuncture ). I believe that veterinary science is very
much like teaching - we do not want to encourage just academic excellence, it
is equally important to nurture the other aspects of development - values, life
skills and interpersonal skills.

Do you have any animals of your own?

I have owned dogs all my life, and
mice, rats, gerbils, hamsters, quails. The pocket pets were owned jointly by my
class children and myself; the kids were excellent care- givers, I must say. I
took a backseat and advised accordingly, but the children took ownership of
those class pets. Personally, I have had a shih tzu terrier x pomeranian, a
Maltese ( my mom's dog ), a dachshund x JRT and a miniature pinscher x JRT. I
do love JRT. They have such big characters despite their small statures.

At the Getting to Zero Summit you talked
about the magnitude of the unwanted pet problem in Australia - do we know how
many unwanted dogs and cats are processed through pounds each year?
What are the challenges in quantifying this problem?

At this point in the study, based
on our preliminary data, we have an estimated number of 200 000 unwanted dogs
and 160 000 unwanted cats in Australia in a year. Unfortunately, this is a huge
underestimation of the actual figures as we have yet to receive pound and
shelter data from agencies in a few states, which we had to contact
individually. This lack of a centralised database at a state or national level
poses a major challenge to data collection for the purpose of this research. It
also hinders efficient data analysis and effective evaluation of strategies
that are in place. How would you know how well you are doing if you do not have
a benchmark to compare with? We also have to consider the fact that the study
focuses on data from state and major animal welfare agencies; smaller
independent agencies have not been included. All these contribute to a gross
underestimation of the actual national figures.

According to Diana's reseach, there are over 200K unwanted dogs and 160K unwanted cats in Australia - though this is a very conservative estimate.

You sought to find out how many animals
are affected. How did you go about collecting the data?

As mentioned above, the lack of a
centralised database means that the groundwork was extensive. Most of the
animal welfare agencies had their shelter data available through their annual
reports online. However, for the state agencies, only NSW has a system where
their council pounds submit data that are subsequently published in state
annual reports. In Victoria, we had to access the individual webpages of the 79
councils to retrieve information on their pounds. In SA, we were only able to
get hold of state wide combined data; AWL SA has declined to release their
data. For the rest of the states, we had to contact the individual councils
separately via emails and phone to request for their pound data: 134 councils
in WA, 73 councils in QLD, 16 councils in NT and 7 councils in TAS (the other
22 council pounds are run by Dogs' Home of Tasmania ).

What are the outcomes for animals that
are surrendered or admitted into pounds and shelters in Australia?

The usual outcomes are reclaimed
by owners, rehomed if unclaimed or unidentified as well as transfers to other
agencies for rehoming. These are considered our live release data. Of course,
euthanasia is also an outcome the animals in the pounds and shelters face as
well.

Were you surprised by the numbers
involved?

At this point, as mentioned above,
the figures that we have are an underestimation of the actual national
statistics. However, we are heartened to see that some agencies boast of a high
reclaim/rehome rate, as compared to other agencies, and we want to highlight
these agencies for their excellent performance as well as promote awareness and
active sharing of effective management strategies. We also noticed that the
intake and euthanasia rate for cats have not really improved over the years, as
compared to dogs. More research in this area is warranted.

What are the alternatives to euthanasia
as a management strategy?

In United States of America, their
‘No Kill’ movement includes a control strategy ( cats ) – Trap, Neuter
and Release ( TNR ). Unfortunately, this is illegal in Australia, which means
we have to look to other areas to have an indirect impact on euthanasia being
used as a population control strategy. That will be through the live release
rates. Reduction of intake of animals into pounds (through responsible pet
owner education, strengthening of the human animal bond and early de-sexing),
coupled with effective strategies to increase reclaim and rehoming rates and
collaboration with other agencies to drive these factors, would hopefully
result in a situation where the use of euthanasia as a population management
strategy is eliminated.

What would it mean to "get to
zero" in Australia?

As a vet in training, I think that euthanasia is inevitable in our
pursuit of animal care and well-being, but it should be on valid medical
grounds. Hence, ‘Getting to zero’ does not mean nil euthanasia per se, it means
giving all healthy and treatable unwanted companion animals a fair chance at
life. This translates to a higher standard of animal welfare in Australia.

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